The Earth’s best makers of cornbread are, somehow, the lunch ladies of Austin, Texas. Ida spent years trying to track down a recipe that properly recreated the cornbread of her childhood. Other recipes forget their corn heritage and add too much wheat flour, producing a cornbread with too mild a texture and flavor. This cornbread is moist, dense, and only lightly sweet. The secret ingredient here is buttermilk.
To bake in a vintage cast iron corn pan, preheat the pan with the oven. When ready, liberally apply oil to the pan, fill with batter, and then bake for 15 minutes.
This was adapted from a recipe by Bethany Weathersby.